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Dining hall double standard

Jia Hua Juszczak | Sunday, March 4, 2012

It is a recurring event every spring when students begin to gripe about the lack of meat options being served by the dining halls. In all fairness, the University is a Catholic institution. As such, it is reasonable to consider that it may be the University’s vocation to uphold the Catholic teachings pertaining to the observation of Lent. From this standpoint, the University has every right not to offer meat at the dining halls on Fridays during the Lenten season.

Yet, something does not sit right with me; my athlete friends are able to eat a University-subsidized meal on Fridays that contains meat products. Set against the context of the dining halls taking proactive steps to refrain from serving meat to all students regardless of religious background, the fact that my athlete friends have access to meat on Fridays during the Lenten season, on behalf of the University, appears sacrilegious.

Why should student-athletes be exempt from observing the Lenten obligations the University relentlessly imposes on the rest of the student body? I propose that if it is the stance of the University to provide meals containing meat to the student athletes regardless of Lent, then every student at the University of Notre Dame should have the option to eat meat at the dining halls during Lent.

Equality between students and athletes is something that I feel merits attention. The fact that student athletes are allowed to eat meat and are provided meals containing meat during Lent that are subsidized by the University, while the remainder of the student body is actively restricted from doing so on the grounds of upholding Catholic teaching is utterly ridiculous. To me, this double standard is unacceptable. If student-athletes can have access to meat, then so should the rest of the student body.